Us (2019)

What would you do if your doppelganger appeared and threatened your family? Jordan Peele’s second feature Us places that terrifying premise beneath the surface of a horror film while hiding a much more complex story within. My rating is ★4.0. It is not as polished as Get Out, but it leaves behind a more uncomfortable question that lingers much longer.

What it’s about — Doubles identical to us come calling

Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o) carries a childhood trauma as she takes her family to a beachside vacation home in California. That night, four strangers who look exactly like them appear in the driveway. Wearing red jumpsuits and carrying scissors, these doubles — called the Tethered — prove to be not simple intruders but a threat running far deeper. The film’s real horror begins from the moment the Tethered’s origins are revealed. Adelaide’s double, known as Red, speaks differently, moves differently, and her eyes are different. Lupita Nyong’o playing these two people with the same face and keeping them clearly distinct is the central trick sustaining the film from beginning to end.

Direction — Colliding two identities in a single frame

Jordan Peele is a director who knows the grammar of the horror genre and knows how to use it. His command of tension’s rise and fall is excellent, and especially the scenes where the Tethered’s threat first takes concrete shape definitively raise the pulse. He deploys color, lighting, and Lupita Nyong’o’s dual performance so that two identities collide within a single frame. The symbols placed throughout the film connect to the larger picture when examined carefully.

Performance — Nyong’o splitting two from one face

Lupita Nyong’o’s dual performance is the heart of this film. She plays a frightened ordinary mother and her unsettling, strange-voiced double Red simultaneously — and the two characters are distinct enough in texture that the fact that the same actor is playing them keeps registering as surprising. It is hard to understand why she wasn’t nominated for an acting Oscar. Winston Duke naturally blends horror and black comedy, providing balance.

What the film says — When a suppressed class rises to the surface

The Tethered’s existence reads as an allegory for the suppressed classes within American society. Having lived underground mimicking the lives above, they finally rise to the surface for revenge. The fact that Jordan Peele does not end this dynamic as a simple good-versus-evil confrontation is what makes this film more disturbing. The final twist turns the question of which side is really “us” on its head. That question follows you out of the theater and keeps going.

Ratings & reception

IMDb scores it 6.8 — lower than Get Out’s 7.7. Rotten Tomatoes gives it 93%, reflecting strong critical praise, but audience scores sit in the 60s, showing a divided response. Critics praised Jordan Peele’s direction and Lupita Nyong’o’s performance in abundance, but the criticism is also substantial — that the explanation of how the Tethered function is too complicated and has too many logical gaps.

What doesn’t quite work

At the precise moment the Tethered’s existence is explained in detail, the film’s horror paradoxically weakens. The explanation is so specific that its gaps become prominent. Where Get Out cleanly embedded its social themes within genre grammar, Us has themes so large that they seem to clash with the plot. This imbalance shakes the immersion in the back half of the film. Watching it a second time surfaces foreshadowing you missed on a first pass, but the first viewing leaves many things unparsed — which can be disorienting.

Verdict

It lacks the consistency of the previous film, but its ambition is far greater. The scenes where Lupita Nyong’o’s performance and Jordan Peele’s directorial instinct converge are clearly unforgettable. The approach of refusing to leave a horror film as a simple genre piece and extending it into uncomfortable social reflection is fascinating. If you can accept the gaps, it’s fully worth watching. Watching it a second time surfaces foreshadowing invisible on the first pass — that itself demonstrates the film’s completeness. ★4.0.

Recommended for

• Those who prefer horror films with social messages
• Fans of Lupita Nyong’o’s acting
• Those who liked Get Out and are curious about Jordan Peele’s next film